(Energy Analytics Institute, 4.Mar.2022) — Energy briefs including Argentina’s state-owned entity YPF reporting a major reduction in gross debt; officials from CARICOM and SICA coming together at a summit in San Pedro, Belize; Gustavo Petro continuing to lead in a new election poll compiled by Colombia Opina#10 and Invamer; Guyana announcing plans to present its arguments in writing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding its ongoing border dispute w/ Venezuela; and Venezuela’s oil production averaging 791.8 Mb/d on 16 Jan. 2022.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Argentina
— State-owned YPF reported revenues of $13.2bn in 2021, CAPEX of $2.7bn and gross debt of $7.4bn ($6.3 bn net) at YE:21. Combined oil, NGL and gas production reached 469.7 Mboe/d in 2021 vs 467 Mboe/d in 2020, the Buenos Aires-based oil giant revealed 4 Mar. 2022 in official stmts related to its 4Q:21 and YE:21 webcast. Plans for 2022 include boosting equivalent production by more than 8%, YPF CEO Sergio Pablo Antonio Affronti said during the webcast accompanied by CFO Alejandro Daniel Lew. Key highlights/quotes from the webcast incl.:
- “Significant recovery in local demand for both diesel and gasoline in the fourth quarter… utilization rates improved to reach 85% in 4Q:21 while also leading to incremental volumes of imported fuels, primarily diesel, to maintain the market fully supplied”: Affronti
- “We expect to reduce our carbon intensity in coming years and have established a target for a further 10% reduction in 2022 with an aim of averaging less than 41 KgCO2e/boe in 2022”: Affronti
- “Our continued prioritizing profitability and financial prudency in a challenging macroeconomic environment… uncertainties in the global economy together with political tensions and impacts on oil prices will probably add to local volatility”: Affronti
- “In Argentina it will be difficult for the sector to fully track rising international prices”: Affronti
- “We are currently assessing whether we should operate with less average liquidity in the future given that short term financial obligations have decreased significantly”: Lew
Belize
— Heads of State and Government from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Central America Integration System (SICA) and CARICOM Secretary-General Dr. Carla Barnett all came together at the 4th CARICOM-SICA Summit, San Pedro, Belize, 3 Mar. 2022 to discuss a variety of topics.
Colombia
— Gustavo Petro continues to lead a recent election poll compiled by Colombia Opina#10 and Invamer on 4 Mar. 2022. In the poll, which asked participants who they would vote for if the Colombia presidential elections were this Sunday, produced the following results: Gustavo Petro taking 44.6% of the votes; Sergio Fajardo (15%); Rodolfo Hernández (13%); Federico Gutierrez (8.7%); Óscar Iván Zuluaga (12.7%); Ingrid Betancourt (6.2%); Enrique Gomez (1%); Luis Gilberto Murillo (1%); and blank vote (1.9%).
— Colombia will hold congressional elections on 13 Mar. 2022 and the first round of presidential elections on 29 May. 2022. The date for a presidential runoff is slated for 18 Jun. 2022 w/ the change of gov’t slated for 7 Aug. 2022.
Guyana
— Guyana’s gov’t announced on 4 Mar. 2022 that next wk it will present arguments in writing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) related to its ongoing border dispute w/ Venezuela over almost 160,000 km2 of territory west of the Essequibo River, the newspaper El Carabobeño reported 4 Mar. 2022.
Venezuela
— Venezuela’s avg. production during the 2 wk period 1-16 Jan. 2022 was around 863.4 Mb/d, while the goal during the time frame was 1,030.4 Mb/d, according to docs seen by Energy Analytics Institute (EAI). The OPEC country’s production reached 791.8 Mb/d on 16 Jan. 2022, according to the doc.
____________________
By Ian Silverman, Aaron Simonsky and Piero Stewart. © Energy Analytics Institute (EAI). All Rights Reserved.
